Woods lands course-design project in Texas

Tiger Woods will design Bluejack National, which will be built on the site of Blaketree National Golf Club and anchor a 755-acre private community in Montgomery, Texas, northwest of Houston.
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Associated Press
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By Martin Kaufmann

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Tiger Woods has landed a new course-design project.

Beacon Land Development picked Woods to design Bluejack National, which will anchor a 755-acre private community in Montgomery, Texas, about 50 miles northwest of Houston.

The course will be built on the site of Blaketree National Golf Club, which was a well-regarded design when it opened in 2001. Bluejack National will be a new design, though some existing corridors will be maintained.

In a press released issued by Beacon Land Management, Woods described a course that would be challenging, yet manageable for lesser-skilled players.

“The turf will be maintained at a single height of fairway cut, the under growth will be cleared and the forest floor will be covered with pine straw, making it easy to find and play wayward shots,” Woods said.

If that design template sounds like Augusta National Golf Club, that’s probably more than a coincidence.

Blaketree National was the creation of flamboyant Houston oil tycoon Thomas W. Blake, who envisioned a course similar to Augusta National. Blake hired the design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to design the course, but then finished the design work himself.

Blake, who had five wives, died in 2001, shortly before Blaketree National opened. Blake’s daughter, Tessa, did a 1999 documentary on her father called, “Five Wives, Three Secretaries and Me.”

After Blake’s death, his family took control of the course, then sought to sell it in 2005. Course conditions reportedly languished as the family tried to unload the property.

Now, reincarnated by Beacon Land and with Woods’ name attached to it, Bluejack National figures to attract a lot of attention. Design work is underway and is scheduled to be completed by fall 2015.

Woods has one other 18-hole course under construction in the U.S. – The Cliffs at High Carolina in Asheville, N.C. He also is the designer of the second course at Diamante Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. That course is scheduled to open this fall.

For a guy who often appears to be scripted in public, Tiger Woods sure seems to like adlibbing and taking chances in his fledgling golf course design business.

Woods' Bluejack National track will appeal to range of players

Casey Paulson, President of Bluejack National; Michael Abbott, President of Beacon Land Development; Tiger Woods, Bluejack National course designer; and Andy Mitchell, President of Lantern Asset Management, surround a symbolic Bluejack oak tree at the site of the new course.
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Courtesy of Bluejack National
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